Doctor is another of director Phani Majumdar’s (social realist) melodrama films that was set in then-contemporary Singapore, immediately following his gritty film about child delinquency – Masharakat Pinchang. It tells the story of a village carpenter and boat-builder Bakar (S. Kadarisman) who loses his daughter to illness because he is unable to afford the exorbitant medical fees. He resolves to send his son Idris (Aziz Jaafar) to medical college (in spite of his kampong neighbours’ mocking), with the hope that he will become a doctor to serve the poor and the weak.

Idris fulfils his father’s wish and completes his medical studies at the University of Malaya (Singapore). Sympathetic to the poor, Idris initially refuses payment from his underprivileged patients but he soon realizes that he cannot sustain his practice without demanding a fee. A girl, as had happened to Idris’ sister, dies because her family couldn’t pay him to treat her. Knowing this, Bakar admonishes Idris severely and falls ill himself.